Saturday, 28 March 2009
Rain Works In Our Advantage
On Wednesday 28th January was the day of re-filming the flashback scene from the film. As stated on the previous post, filming received a huge setback as the filming location "church park" was being closed during filming. The weather was really miserable as it was earlier pouring with rain but I believe it worked to our advantage because of the content of the scene. As filming will be done in the morning, there will be no problem with time. I decided to change my costume, rather than wearing tracksuit bottoms, I decided to wear "street style" jeans which I believe will portray the villain more clearly. All members of the group arrived in the media studies classroom. We had a quick discussion about the agenda. I booked the filming equipment using my media studies card. We gathered the equipment and made our way to the location. The two female characters were already in their attire. I was also already in my costume but I received a black leather jacket from my group member Tarek to complete my "villain like" look. We began filming and as filming was progressing, the group was pleased with filming but not the weather. All members of the group done some filming to an extent. We finished filming the flashback scene and packed up our equipment and headed back to college. We were really pleased with our footage and made plans for the next scene of filming.
Setback On First Day Of Filming
On Monday 26th January in a media studies lesson our group were prepared to shoot the flashback scene of our thriller film. We agreed a plan for shooting a week beforehand on a Wednesday media studies lesson. For costume I had to bring tracksuit bottoms and "street style" trainers for use in the film. My group member Precious booked the filming equipment using her media card. Our location was a nearby park known amongst people as the "church park". The two other female characters chose to wear "kiddish costumes" to portray their youthful age. All equipment was gathered and we reached our location. We began filming scenes of the two female characters, Amy and Lucy playing on the swings. As filming was progressing I replayed the shots and believed they were to a high standard. However the unthinkable occurred which shocked the whole group. The park keeper came to tell us the park is being closed. The group had no idea that the park has closure times and I personally believed the park was open 24/7. We were told to pack our filming equipment and leave the park. We accepted the park keepers request and decided to head back to college to return the filming equipment. We returned to college and gave the camera equipment. We decided to start from scratch with the filming as there would be a problem with continuity e.g weather. We would start filming on the next media studies lesson.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Media- Thriller Evaluation
As an AS Media task we were given the opportunity to create a short two minute thriller opening to a film. The brief was that it had to have thriller themes which were fast pacing, frequent action, suspense and cliff-hangers. All of this combined with 
an appropriate soundtrack self-made to accompany the thriller opening.
In order to get a full understanding of thriller movies we were required to watch parts of thriller films, which had the thriller conventions. These conventions included heart-racing scenes, a build up of tension, a change in atmosphere, turning the audience into investigators, edgy scenes and building up expectations. In addition, in a typical thriller movie there is always that certain character with a dodgy personality t
hat helps it be listed as a thriller. For instance, the father in The Shining, the Joker from The Dark Knight or even the Hutu militants in Hotel Rwanda. All these characters play a vital role of violence, torture and often a mysterious being. All these conventions were considered and applied to our thriller opening scene. For example, the flashback in the thriller was fast pacing and included jumpy scenes, this created tension and anxiety. The part in which one of the characters witnesses the kidnap creates suspense as it is not shown to the audience. The kidnapper takes the role of that stereo-typical character alerting the audience that something bad happens in his presence. The soundtrack in the thriller creates pace, builds up atmosphere and tension and acts as a guide to the audience alerting them when all the peak scenes are screening.
The characters in the film stereo-type reality. To begin with, the two young girls are aged 15 and have woolly hats and scarves to suit the weather. They’ve got bags with them and are dressed casually. When making the film we tried to copy how girls would dress and who’d what they’d carry. We emphasised on their age by placing them in a park by the swings having fun and laughing. Both characters were non-white which helped the audience into thinking that the film was placed in London due to the ethnic diversity. Also, the asian kidnapper aged in his late teens wore a black hooded jacket with a scruffy appearance. This represented youth in society today showing that they are up to no good and always cause trouble. All these characters seemed to have come from a working class family as they are well dressed and appear healthy. Furthermore, the fact that a black woman and asian man are wearing suits indicates that they have a well-paid job highlighting the development in society and class showing that not only white people have well-paid jobs and live wealthy.
As our thriller film doesn’t include any big explosions or stunts, I think that it would be better if it were to be a small independent release showing in UK cinemas then moving onto television. To promote the film, posters and billboards advertising the film would be placed around the UK which would grab the audience’s attention by visually alerting them about this new must
watch film. Plus, it would be advertised on socialising websites such as MySpace and 
Facebook. When being viewed on television, I think that it would be scheduled as an after 9.00pm film on Channel4. This is because the film may include scenes of violence which would not be appropriate for young children to watch. I also think that as Channel4 is widely watched by people of all age, race, class and gender it would be viewed by more viewers than if it was watched on ITV.
Once upon a Kidnap is a film targeted at people of 15+. I think that mainly young people of ethnic backgrounds would watch it predominantly because they would be able to relate to the characters in the film due to race and class. An ideal viewer would be for example, Markus- 18, mixed race, lives in East London, works in a music store, enjoys
watches movies, self-admits to buying pirate DVDs, smokes, goes clubbing, casual dress sense, Nike, Adidas and Reebok, in further education. The thing that will specifically appeal to Markus is the urban location, the fact that crime is a major issue already in his neighbour hood and the diverse ethnicity.
Making any film requires good quality filming equipment. In order to create our thriller openings we used Canon cameras for filming and Apple Mac computers with Final Cut Pro to edit the film. I helped with a bit of everything but found myself better at using Final Cut Pro to edit. I found myself being more creative and coming up with good ideas when editing for instance, in the match-cut task when the two actors are exchanging the documents the angles change from an over the shoulder shot to a medium shot. Using the cameras was a slight hassle for me as I had problems with panning because I seemed to always go too slow or too fast cropping out the actor in the scene. I dealt with this issue by having practice panning people walking on the street. I then got the hang of it and produced some good panning shots like when one of the actors exits the park. As part of the course work, we were required to frequently blog on our individual group blogging accounts. We had to write about each task we were given for instance, the newspaper task (filming and editing), analysing thriller clips, the preliminary task (filming and editing) and planning and pitching our final thriller. We also had to upload each practical task we were given onto our blogging accounts which made it possible to be viewed by fellow class members. By doing this, the internet widened the potential audience for our product.
Before making the final thriller opening, we were given two tasks to complete. This included the news paper task and the preliminary task. These tasks allowed us to get a hang of the technical equipment and make mistakes only to improve them. By doing these tasks, I learnt that it
is vital to plan and prepare your self before filming. I learnt that storyboards are important as a guide when filming because they help keep a track of what to film. On Final Cut Pro I leant how to input in and out points from a scene then drag it along the timeline to add any effects, text or music. I also leant how to change the colour of the film making it black and white. I realized that when filming things may not go to plan but we have to make use of what we get and make the most of it. I discovered whilst filming for the newspaper task footage may not be recorded due to faulty tapes however, making the most of what you’ve got is better than nothing. Both practice tasks helped the group a lot with creating the final thriller film. Everyone’s experiences and hard work put together produced a well-made thriller.
an appropriate soundtrack self-made to accompany the thriller opening.In order to get a full understanding of thriller movies we were required to watch parts of thriller films, which had the thriller conventions. These conventions included heart-racing scenes, a build up of tension, a change in atmosphere, turning the audience into investigators, edgy scenes and building up expectations. In addition, in a typical thriller movie there is always that certain character with a dodgy personality t
hat helps it be listed as a thriller. For instance, the father in The Shining, the Joker from The Dark Knight or even the Hutu militants in Hotel Rwanda. All these characters play a vital role of violence, torture and often a mysterious being. All these conventions were considered and applied to our thriller opening scene. For example, the flashback in the thriller was fast pacing and included jumpy scenes, this created tension and anxiety. The part in which one of the characters witnesses the kidnap creates suspense as it is not shown to the audience. The kidnapper takes the role of that stereo-typical character alerting the audience that something bad happens in his presence. The soundtrack in the thriller creates pace, builds up atmosphere and tension and acts as a guide to the audience alerting them when all the peak scenes are screening.The characters in the film stereo-type reality. To begin with, the two young girls are aged 15 and have woolly hats and scarves to suit the weather. They’ve got bags with them and are dressed casually. When making the film we tried to copy how girls would dress and who’d what they’d carry. We emphasised on their age by placing them in a park by the swings having fun and laughing. Both characters were non-white which helped the audience into thinking that the film was placed in London due to the ethnic diversity. Also, the asian kidnapper aged in his late teens wore a black hooded jacket with a scruffy appearance. This represented youth in society today showing that they are up to no good and always cause trouble. All these characters seemed to have come from a working class family as they are well dressed and appear healthy. Furthermore, the fact that a black woman and asian man are wearing suits indicates that they have a well-paid job highlighting the development in society and class showing that not only white people have well-paid jobs and live wealthy.
As our thriller film doesn’t include any big explosions or stunts, I think that it would be better if it were to be a small independent release showing in UK cinemas then moving onto television. To promote the film, posters and billboards advertising the film would be placed around the UK which would grab the audience’s attention by visually alerting them about this new must
watch film. Plus, it would be advertised on socialising websites such as MySpace and 
Facebook. When being viewed on television, I think that it would be scheduled as an after 9.00pm film on Channel4. This is because the film may include scenes of violence which would not be appropriate for young children to watch. I also think that as Channel4 is widely watched by people of all age, race, class and gender it would be viewed by more viewers than if it was watched on ITV.Once upon a Kidnap is a film targeted at people of 15+. I think that mainly young people of ethnic backgrounds would watch it predominantly because they would be able to relate to the characters in the film due to race and class. An ideal viewer would be for example, Markus- 18, mixed race, lives in East London, works in a music store, enjoys
watches movies, self-admits to buying pirate DVDs, smokes, goes clubbing, casual dress sense, Nike, Adidas and Reebok, in further education. The thing that will specifically appeal to Markus is the urban location, the fact that crime is a major issue already in his neighbour hood and the diverse ethnicity.Making any film requires good quality filming equipment. In order to create our thriller openings we used Canon cameras for filming and Apple Mac computers with Final Cut Pro to edit the film. I helped with a bit of everything but found myself better at using Final Cut Pro to edit. I found myself being more creative and coming up with good ideas when editing for instance, in the match-cut task when the two actors are exchanging the documents the angles change from an over the shoulder shot to a medium shot. Using the cameras was a slight hassle for me as I had problems with panning because I seemed to always go too slow or too fast cropping out the actor in the scene. I dealt with this issue by having practice panning people walking on the street. I then got the hang of it and produced some good panning shots like when one of the actors exits the park. As part of the course work, we were required to frequently blog on our individual group blogging accounts. We had to write about each task we were given for instance, the newspaper task (filming and editing), analysing thriller clips, the preliminary task (filming and editing) and planning and pitching our final thriller. We also had to upload each practical task we were given onto our blogging accounts which made it possible to be viewed by fellow class members. By doing this, the internet widened the potential audience for our product.
Before making the final thriller opening, we were given two tasks to complete. This included the news paper task and the preliminary task. These tasks allowed us to get a hang of the technical equipment and make mistakes only to improve them. By doing these tasks, I learnt that it
is vital to plan and prepare your self before filming. I learnt that storyboards are important as a guide when filming because they help keep a track of what to film. On Final Cut Pro I leant how to input in and out points from a scene then drag it along the timeline to add any effects, text or music. I also leant how to change the colour of the film making it black and white. I realized that when filming things may not go to plan but we have to make use of what we get and make the most of it. I discovered whilst filming for the newspaper task footage may not be recorded due to faulty tapes however, making the most of what you’ve got is better than nothing. Both practice tasks helped the group a lot with creating the final thriller film. Everyone’s experiences and hard work put together produced a well-made thriller.Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Monday after the deadline
The Monday after the deadline I saw two of the group members who were meant to add the final touches on Friday and asked them whether they had completed it. They said that everything was finished from soundtrack to credits and that they had changed the title to ‘Once upon a Kidnapper’. I was happy with everyone’s hard work and input and couldn’t wait to see our thriller finally finished.
Thurday afternoon- final touches
Thursday afternoon in my photography lesson the internet on the computers wasn’t working so I asked my teacher if I could go and do my media coursework as the dead line was TOMORROW! He said that was fine so I took off for the Mac computer room and again discovered the room filled with media students working on their films. I stuck around for a bit and saw that the teacher instructed some students to leave as they had been using the computers for a long period time and that it was not fair on others. I jumped for the chance to use the computer and called up my group member and asked her to meet me in the media computer room. I started without her and began to add text and add some transitions. When she had arrived we came up with a title for the film which was ‘Taken’. We did some more editing and decided that the other group members would have to finish it off as we had no college on Fridays. The other members said that this was fine so we left as the day was ending.
Lunch time Workshop
At lunch time, workshop was completely cramped with media groups editing their films and groups waiting to use the Mac computers. I felt as there was no hope to access a computer and left. Later on that day I saw a member of my group who told me that he and another member had been able to access a Mac computer and did as much editing as possible. Hearing this took a load off my shoulders making me sigh in relief.
Editing the lesson after the second half of the filming
The lesson after the second half of the filming involved me and my group uploading all the footage and sorting them out into the flashback scenes and the present scenes. We also renamed them so it was easier for us to identify and locate. We began to put footage together deciding which shots we were to use and how the shots will blend together for instance, using a dissolve transition. As the time grew closer to the end of the lesson we panicked knowing that the deadline was a few days away and said we were to meet up at workshop to continue with editing.
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